As Enron Trial Heads Toward Jury,
Defense Attacks 'Fictional' Case

By

John R. Emshwiller and

Gary McWilliams

Updated May 17, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

HOUSTON -- In their final arguments to jurors, lawyers for the former two top executives at Enron Corp., whose 2001 collapse made it a symbol of corporate misdeeds in the 1990s boom, maintained that the company's downfall was a tragedy but not a crime.

During a day of closing arguments, lawyers for former Enron executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay mixed caustic attacks on the government's evidence and witnesses with impassioned pleas to view their clients as innocent men. Running throughout their presentations was...